Hi Chris,

I saw your post over at the Majestic forum regarding equipment on the Majestic model of the Q400 but I'll post my comments here as I'm not really too sure about my information. I believe the Majestic model has the following equipment (this is how I have it set up in PFPX which has selection boxes similar to the Rocketroute website you mentioned).

Equipment 10a: SDE2E3FGRY
PBN/B2B3B4D2D3O2O3S1



Hope this helps.

Regards,
Serge

Looking at what you've got and what I've got we're roughly in agreement in that it should be
SDFGRVY (then /C, /S, /H or /I for the transponder, I favour /S myself). E2 and E3 (ACARS) and J (CPDLC) are disputable, depends if you count VATSIM/IVAO text messaging as satisfying those.

The PBN you've stated is what Air Berlin use and includes O (RNP1) which most operators omit and S (Approach Approved) which only a few operators use. Everyone seems to have B (5 miles) and then either C (2 miles) or D (1 mile); I think for the Majestic and ICX, B2B3B4D2D3 are definite. I've omitted S because not many operators have it and O (RNP1) is arguable, I think they may both need RAIM?

Boy this gets complicated!

Yeah, this gets complicated alright.

Like you, I was looking around the web to see what others were using for the PBN when I was setting up the Q400 profile for PFPX. Surprisingly it varied quite a bit so I just stuck with the equipment listed with the default profile shipped with PFPX with a couple of minor changes.

In the SOP you listed the item 10 equipement as SDE2E3FGRVY/S. I agree about the Transponder being /S. I believe the V can be omitted as it's covered by the S (VOR, ILS, VHF) so it would read SDE2E3FGRY/S.

With the PBN I wasn't really sure about the RNP section. I recall seeing on the Majestic forums one of the Dev's mention the Q400 could do RNP approaches hence the S1 and like you mentioned it matches Air Berlin's.

Is the PBN's purpose to state what the aircraft is actually capable of doing or what the company SOP states it's allowed to do?

Good idea adding it to the SOP though.

Cheers,
Serge

Quote from: Sergio De Ceglie on Jun 05, 2014 04:37
I believe the V can be omitted as it's covered by the S (VOR, ILS, VHF) so it would read SDE2E3FGRY/S.

Is the PBN's purpose to state what the aircraft is actually capable of doing or what the company SOP states it's allowed to do?

Whoops, I wasn't all that awake at the time, the V is omitted by the S!

PBN states the aircraft's achievable navigation performance, which I take to mean both crew (and by proxy company procedure) and equipment on the aircraft (including up to date calibration and maintenance).

What I've posted in the Q400 SOP I believe to be correct but I may remove the the O2 and O3 if new information comes to light.

The Jetstream 41 is even more confusing, Eastern Airways seem to file A1 (10 nm) only but I am sure the GNS-XLS fitted can achieve better accuracy than that. I've seen a couple with B2B3B4 stated which seems more reasonable, but I am not sure how accurate those flight plans are.

Quote from: Chris Liu on Jun 05, 2014 09:46
What I've posted in the Q400 SOP I believe to be correct but I may remove the the O2 and O3 if new information comes to light.

Sounds good to me.

Quote from: Chris Liu on Jun 05, 2014 09:46
The Jetstream 41 is even more confusing, Eastern Airways seem to file A1 (10 nm) only but I am sure the GNS-XLS fitted can achieve better accuracy than that. I've seen a couple with B2B3B4 stated which seems more reasonable, but I am not sure how accurate those flight plans are.

I found it hard to find equipment information on the JS41 too. The best I could do was B2B3B4. I'll keep looking though.


Regards,
Serge

Well, after more searching still no luck finding much on the JS41 PBN information so I think the B2B3B4 you currently have should be satisfactory. I notice on your item 10 equipment list on the JS41 SOP page you left the V in again. 

Regarding the Q400, I was reading through the Majestic Manual, and in the FMS section it states the Q400 has RAIM and covers a bit on RNP including RNP enabled RNAV approaches so I believe the O2O3S1 PBN entries may be valid.

Since you're adding this information to the Aircraft SOP's would it be worth adding extra information such as Wake Category (M), PER (Q400=C / JS41=B) and RVR (Q400=300 / JS41, not sure 300 or 550)?

Cheers,
Serge

The J41 is valid down to 550m RVR, that I do know. The wake information is actually already on each aircraft's webpage (along with the FAA equipment code) but needs updating.